Several Indian refiners have recently bought crude from Oman and West Africa via tenders, trade sources told Reuters on Wednesday, as term supplies from the Middle East remain choked by the shipping constraints at the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb.
State-controlled Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has acquired about 1 million barrels of crude oil from Oman via a tender, at a premium of some $3 per barrel to Dated Brent, from Mitsui & Co Energy Trading Singapore, according to Reuters’ sources.
In addition, state-run Indian Oil Corporation, the largest refiner by capacity in the country, has bought from Chevron a total of 4 million barrels of West African crude, including Nemba, Saxi Batuque, and Clov grades from Angola, and Congo’s Djeno crude.
Earlier this week, reports emerged that state-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has bought 2 million barrels of crude from Nigeria, as India looks to offset the loss of supply from the Middle East with deliveries from producers farther away.
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HPCL has acquired Okwuibome and Utapate crudes from Nigeria from commodity trader Glencore via a tender, trading sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Since the beginning of the Iran war, Indian refiners have scrambled to replace the lost crude oil supply from the Middle East with alternatives from other producers.
India has significantly boosted its imports of Russian crude in recent months, with July imports hitting a new all-time high and accounting for more than half of total Indian crude oil imports.
But these aren’t enough and Indian refiners are looking for sources of supply that does not need to transit any of the chokepoints in the Middle East.
Indian refiners are in search of crude supply from as far as Angola in Africa and Venezuela in South America as their term supplies from the Middle East were trapped again in July and unable to reach India as planned.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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